Royal Feeling Right at Home in 83-68 Victory

Home, sweet home.

For the Royal High boys’ basketball team, it was good to be home, and the Highlanders capitalized on their first home-court advantage of the season to defeat Camarillo, 83-68, in a Marmonte League game Friday night.

The Highlanders were playing their first home game of the season after spending 16 on the road in three preseason tournaments and their first five league games.

“After all those games away, I didn’t think we’d ever get back home,” Royal’s Ryan Nielsen said.

The Highlanders (13-4, 5-1 in league play), had much more than just the home-court advantage going for them against Camarillo (10-5, 2-4).

They had Nielsen, for example. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound forward, who has been averaging 19.4 points and 10.1 rebounds, scored 30 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Royal also had point guard Marques Pena, who added 21 points and six assists. Nick Flanagan collected six assists to go with nine points (seven in the second quarter), and Erik Plummer scored six points in a row to help spark a 17-9 third-quarter run that put the Highlanders up, 55-38, with 4:26 left.

Scott Schnetzler nailed a pair of three-point shots during that run and finished with nine points to go with five rebounds.

Royal was up by 18 points by the end of the third quarter and by 20 or more through most of the final quarter.

The biggest advantage was 23 points after Nielsen scored seven of Royal’s first nine points of the fourth quarter.

The Highlanders’ victory came on the heels of their first league setback, to Channel Islands, earlier in the week.

Josh Hill had 19 points and 12 rebounds for Camarillo and Leo Espelet came off the bench to score 14.